HydrionisGlobal Water Intelligence
HUC8 subbasin

Big Thompson

2 monitoring stations within this area in United States, holding 329 values between 1888 and 2026. A United States federal hydrologic unit at the eight-digit subbasin level — a drainage area, not a river. Many subbasins take the name of the largest river within them, and the gauges below are anywhere inside the area, including on tributaries.

United StatesHUC8 subbasin

The monitoring network within this area

Hydrionis holds 329 values from 2 gauges within it. Discharge is a property of a gauge and its reach, not of this drainage area, so this page reports the network and its records rather than a single figure.

2
Gauges
329
Values held
1888–2026
Record spans
Gauges within the Big Thompson huc8 subbasin
2 monitoring points, positioned as the publisher records them.
Gauges within the Big Thompson huc8 subbasinBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO, BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH, NEAR LA SALLE, CO.BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, COBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH, NEAR LA SALLE, CO.

Flood peaks, as measured

This gauge's flood record, as measured. Unlike a daily mean it is the discharge at the moment the river was highest, which is the figure flood frequency analysis is built on.

Largest measured flow of each year at BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO
The highest instantaneous discharge the publisher recorded in each year — a flood peak as measured, not a daily average of one. 1888–2007.
Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.
Largest measured flow of each year at BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, COLargest measured flow of each year at BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO: BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO in m³/s, from 1888 to 2007.Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse02505007501,000m³/s18881930194519571968197919902001

Published by the gauge's own operator from its sub-daily record; Hydrionis stores the figure rather than recomputing it. A year the gauge did not cover produces no value rather than a low one, and the gaps are stated below the chart. A peak is a property of this gauge and its reach: a larger flood upstream or downstream of it is not in this series.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

EventTypePeriodStandingAuthority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapseFlood2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30Documented record
Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

  • The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
View the data behind this chart
Underlying data
PeriodBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO (m³/s)
188825.2
189553.8
189628.6
189730.0
189838.5
189954.4
190221.9
190336.8
192730.0
192851.0
192945.3
193045.0
193133.7
193226.3
193341.3
1938159
193926.1
194023.8
1941133
1942106
194337.7
194435.7
1945215
194647.6
194765.7
194836.8
194994.3
1951100.0
195242.5
195342.5
195411.0
195514.0
195617.2
195757.8
195825.5
195919.3
196014.3
196132.3
196220.8
196317.3
19647.76
196562.9
196623.8
196715.4
196814.6
196951.0
197020.2
197123.1
197213.9
197333.4
197418.7
197515.9
1976883
19777.42
197847.3
197941.1
1980174
198111.9
198234.5
198363.7
198429.2
198520.0
198628.3
198720.9
198820.7
198917.4
199016.0
199123.8
199210.9
199320.9
19946.91
199577.6
199623.0
199733.1
199819.9
199969.7
200015.1
200112.5
20027.53
200333.7
200419.7
200517.2
200612.9
20079.57

About this series

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source
United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to existMeasured
Period held1888–2007
Completeness70.0% of the periods in that span are held. Gaps are drawn as breaks and never interpolated.
Known gaps
  • 5 separate periods inside 1888–2007 hold no value. The longest runs from 1904 to 1926 — 23 years with no reading. They are drawn as breaks in the line and are never interpolated across.
ContinuityThe record begins in 1888 and is not continuous from it: 120 years separate the first value from the last, and 70% of the years between them are held. The span is not the record.
Last read from the publisher2026-08-31
RedistributionPermitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reusePermitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
MethodologyHow this was produced

How much of the rain came back out

A discharge in cubic metres per second cannot be compared with anything: the larger number may only mean the larger catchment. Divided by the area draining to the gauge it becomes a depth of water over that land, which answers a question a reader already has — of the rain that fell here, how much came back out as river?

Water leaving the catchment above BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO, as a depth
The year's flow spread over the land draining to this gauge, in millimetres — the same unit rainfall is measured in. 1927–2006.
Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.
Water leaving the catchment above BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO, as a depthWater leaving the catchment above BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO, as a depth: BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO in mm, from 1927 to 2006.Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse0100200300mm19271947195919681977198619952004BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1927: 202 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1939: 130 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1940: 137 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1941: 192 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1942: 242 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1943: 214 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1944: 192 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1945: 232 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1946: 136 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1947: 300 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1948: 172 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1952: 247 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1953: 246 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1954: 85.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1955: 80.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1956: 95.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1957: 173 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1958: 125 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1959: 86.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1960: 77.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1961: 97.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1962: 107 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1963: 78.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1964: 67.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1965: 132 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1966: 77.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1967: 78.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1968: 90.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1969: 99.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1970: 97.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1971: 111 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1972: 77.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1973: 121 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1974: 95.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1975: 92.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1976: 67.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1977: 39.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1978: 129 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1979: 92.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1980: 207 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1981: 66.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1982: 125 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1983: 251 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1984: 152 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1985: 108 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1986: 177 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1987: 97.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1988: 110 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1989: 84.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1990: 90.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1991: 76.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1992: 69.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1993: 85.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1994: 80.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1995: 176 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1996: 122 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1997: 159 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1998: 140 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 1999: 111 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2000: 102 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2001: 83.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2002: 54.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2003: 97.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2004: 96.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2005: 78.0 mmBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO 2006: 63.0 mm

Computed by Hydrionis from the published annual mean flow and the catchment area the station's own publisher states. It is not a water balance: the difference between rainfall and runoff is not evaporation alone but also change in groundwater storage, water abstracted and taken elsewhere, and water imported by transfer schemes — which is why a catchment can yield more runoff than the rain that fell on it without anything being measured wrongly. A different area figure rescales every value here by the ratio between them.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

EventTypePeriodStandingAuthority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapseFlood2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30Documented record
Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

  • The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
  • European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
View the data behind this chart
Underlying data
PeriodBIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, CO (mm)
1927202
1939130
1940137
1941192
1942242
1943214
1944192
1945232
1946136
1947300
1948172
1952247
1953246
195485.0
195580.0
195695.0
1957173
1958125
195986.0
196077.0
196197.0
1962107
196378.0
196467.0
1965132
196677.0
196778.0
196890.0
196999.0
197097.0
1971111
197277.0
1973121
197495.0
197592.0
197667.0
197739.0
1978129
197992.0
1980207
198166.0
1982125
1983251
1984152
1985108
1986177
198797.0
1988110
198984.0
199090.0
199176.0
199269.0
199385.0
199480.0
1995176
1996122
1997159
1998140
1999111
2000102
200183.0
200254.0
200397.0
200496.0
200578.0
200663.0

About this series

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source
United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to existDerived Computed by Hydrionis
Period held1927–2006
Completeness82.5% of the periods in that span are held. Gaps are drawn as breaks and never interpolated.
Known gaps
  • 2 separate periods inside 1927–2006 hold no value. The longest runs from 1928 to 1938 — 11 years with no reading. They are drawn as breaks in the line and are never interpolated across.
ContinuityThe record begins in 1927 and is not continuous from it: 80 years separate the first value from the last, and 83% of the years between them are held. The span is not the record.
Last read from the publisher2026-08-24
RedistributionPermitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reusePermitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
MethodologyHow this was produced

Every gauge Hydrionis holds within this area

GaugeMeasuresValuesRecord
BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, COburned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow1871888–2026
BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH, NEAR LA SALLE, CO.burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow1421927–2026

How these gauges were attached to this water

Assigned by the publisher to a numbered basin Every gauge here is assigned to this drainage area by its own publisher, which issues the area an official code — 10190006. A drainage area is not a river: it contains the tributaries as well as the main channel, and a gauge in it may be on any of them.

GaugeEvidenceEstablished
BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH OF CANYON NR DRAKE, COStated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/42026-08-26
BIG THOMPSON RIVER AT MOUTH, NEAR LA SALLE, CO.Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/42026-08-26

What this record holds

Hydrionis decides which waters get a page, and which of those are offered to search, from what is actually held rather than from how the page reads. Five signals are counted; this record has 3 of them, which makes it a full profile.

SignalHeldCounts
Gauges holding a real record2no
Years spanned139yes, 20 or more
Values held329no
Distinct measurements4yes, 2 or more
Publishers measuring it2yes, 2 or more
Official identifiers1recorded, not counted

Use this data

Use this data

No bulk download is offered here, which is a licence position rather than a product one: at least one contributing publisher does not permit redistribution. The values can be read on the page, cited, and pointed to at source.

Attribution and citation

Suggested citation for Hydrionis

Hydrionis (2026), Big Thompson gauge records, accessed 2026-09-02, hydrionis.com/waters/united-states-big-thompson/

Cite Hydrionis where you rely on values Hydrionis computed, on the method that produced them, or on the compilation itself. The underlying measurements remain the publishers’ and their attribution requirements apply to you directly.

Recommended, not required. Hydrionis does not claim rights over unmodified public data it relayed, and doing arithmetic on somebody else’s measurements does not make them Hydrionis’s. Cite the version and the access date: the Big Thompson gauge records changes as publishers release and as methods are revised, and a citation without both cannot be checked later. Full guidance is on cite and reuse.

None of the contributing licences requires attribution. Crediting the publishers is still good practice and they are listed above.

Where these figures come from

MeasuredHigh confidence2007-05-29

Source: USGS — National Water Information System, USGS site 06738000, annual peak streamflow. Licence: Open.

Method: The instantaneous maximum discharge of each water year as published by USGS, dated to the day it occurred. One value per October-to-September water year; where the publisher lists both a systematic and a historic peak for a year, the larger is the annual maximum. Values the publisher marks as maximum daily averages are not held here, because they are not instantaneous peaks. Values marked as bounded rather than measured are held as censored observations carrying the bound. Cubic feet per second are converted to cubic metres per second and the publisher unit is recorded alongside.

Rating curves are extrapolated at extreme discharges, so the largest values in a peak series carry the largest measurement uncertainty. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System, a work of the United States government and therefore in the public domain.

Retrieved 31 August 2026.

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